July 30th, 2010 1:04 PM

River Market is getting a grocery

The River Market is getting a grocery — again.

Market 3, scheduled to open at 114 W. Third St. in mid-August, will have a full salad bar, fresh produce, smoothies and daily grocery staples.

“I’ll have a drop-off for dry cleaning, a concierge for parking, if that’s what people want. But what people are really wanting are eggs, butter, milk and flour,” said Jim Andrews, partner with Mark Ringenberg in the new venture. “It will be a lot like Garrett’s. The River Market’s pantry.”

Garrett’s Corner Market opened at Third and Delaware streets in 1999 and in mid-2002 moved to the northernmost section of the River Market at 201 Main St. It quadrupled its space and added a restaurant serving three meals a day. But then it closed in 2004.

Andrews said Garrett’s was a great idea, just ahead of its time. Now there are more than 1,500 residents and 2,500 workers in the River Market area — defined by the River Market Community Association as the bluffs on the west, the Missouri River on the north, Cherry Street on the east and Independence Avenue on the south.

Andrews and Ringenberg have spent six months planning the grocery. Andrews spent 10 years in the grocery business, five as a manager in the Wichita and Lawrence areas, as well as stints in the bar and restaurant business and construction. Ringenberg, a graphic artist and marketer, owns a River Market building and lives there. He plans to put up a big sign on his building advertising the grocery to downtowners to the south.

“With his marketing background he’ll bring them in, and I’ll keep them coming back,” Andrews said.

Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2010/07/29/2117083/cityscape-river-market-is-getting.html#ixzz0vBq1F4lz

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